MetaFilter posts tagged with drugs and pharmaceuticals

High medication costs make baby Jesus cry

dances_with_sneetches — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:15:46 -0800

Why do my medications cost so much? Are there ways to save money on my pills? Are generic drugs equal to the brand name? Is a generic option available for the drug I'm taking? Or maybe my medications are causing my health problems? Can I just take the expired pills in that old bottle?

Prozac doesn't work better than placebo

Rumple — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:58:54 -0800

A new peer-reviewed meta-analysis of clinical data demonstrates that four widely-prescribed SSRI anti-depressants, including Prozac and Effexor, are not more effective than placebos. Summary from the Guardian. The review breaks new ground because Kirsch and his colleagues have obtained for the first time what they believe is a full set of trial data for four antidepressants. They requested the full data under freedom of information rules from the Food and Drug Administration, which licenses medicines in the US and requires all data when it makes a decision. The pattern they saw from the trial results of fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Seroxat), venlafaxine (Effexor) and nefazodone (Serzone) was consistent. "Using complete data sets (including unpublished data) and a substantially larger data set of this type than has been previously reported, we find the overall effect of new-generation antidepressant medication is below recommended criteria for clinical significance," they write.

Bioethics discussions are fun when you aren't about to die.

BrotherCaine — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:48:53 -0800

Dying for Lifesaving Drugs: Will desperate patients destroy the pharmaceutical system that produces tomorrow's treatments?Reason Magazine

Rare reaction to new drug during trial.

piscatorius — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:11:52 -0800

Newsfilter: The trial of a new drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis and leukaemia goes horribly wrong. 6 normally healthy volunteers have a freak reaction to the drug resulting in multiple organ failure. All 6 men are in intensive care. 4 are seriously ill while 2 remain in a critical condition. An eyewitness, fortunate to have taken only a placebo recalls the nightmare as the men around him begin to fall ill.

“Even if it doesn't reduce the number of meth addicts by even one, stopping the labs is a huge plus.”

ijoshua — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:17:59 -0800

Sine-Off is the first brand of cold, flu and sinus congestion medicine to completely reformulate and remove pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient needed to make Crystal Meth.

Oxycontin for the rich, heroin for the poor...

Rothko — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:00:23 -0800

"Well, a lot of people have said DEA is in the dark on these issues, but that is a little bit much." (.doc; long) Despite a power outage, an FDA-lead panel discusses how to manage abuse of the infamous opiod painkiller OxyContin. Purdue Pharma, its sole manufacturer, had tried to bring its more powerful successor Palladone (.pdf) to the market, before "dosage jump" issues lead to the drug being pulled by the FDA. Meanwhile, trucks loaded with $3mil dollars of "oxys" continue to get hijacked for a $15mil street turnover, despite GPS tracking and other high-tech security measures used for cigarette distribution. Doctors invariably shuffle pills sideways despite tamper-proof presciption pads (long). Purdue only stops selling more profitable and addictive double-doses of OxyContin after government pressure. On the level of the street, addicts who find themselves too tolerant to the drug find their needs more than adequately met when they can buy many more hits of heroin for the same cost. Philadelphia-based writer Jeff Deeney outlines some of these fascinating issues and more as he looks into how race, cost, manufacturing and distribution factors in OxyContin abuse invariably drive the addict to cheaper and more easily accessible heroin.

Bad medicine

daksya — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 17:43:56 -0800

The problem of fake pharmaceutical drugs

Big Pharma

reverenddrjice — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 18:27:29 -0800

Pharmaceuticals have many tricks up their sleeves.

Got drugs?

LunaticFringe — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:41:48 -0800

Tired? Need a boost? Everything you ever wanted to know about one of America's favourite energy boosters. This website contains 25 pages covering the history, uses (both legitimate and illegitimate), and biological characteristics of cocaine and the coca plant. An interesting read for those with time to kill (like me). Possibly NSFW.

Just Say No To Drugs (Reps)

Gyan — Sat, 04 Dec 2004 21:57:06 -0800

Just Say No To Drug Reps.

How to think about prescription drugs.

trharlan — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 21:03:21 -0800

How to think about prescription drugs. Malcolm Gladwell's latest piece in The New Yorker
The emphasis of the prescription-drug debate is all wrong. We've been focussed on the drug manufacturers. But decisions about prevalence, therapeutic mix, and intensity aren't made by the producers of drugs. They’re made by the consumers of drugs.

Big heads wobbling on wee necks?....

troutfishing — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 10:11:01 -0800

Nootropics ("smart" drugs) - all wish to be smarter, correct ? And - while exercise, nutrition, learning, travel, and social interaction (the last 3 via release of neurotrophins) effectively do this, Nootropic drugs have been researched since the 1950's and have been shown to cause at least short term cognitive function enhancement. Piracetam, the first of this drugs, shows promise in the treatment of Alzheimer's and Attention deficit Disorder. Alas, as with poor little Algernon, the effect seems temporary. Nootropics can be a little difficult to acquire in the US. Beer is not a nootropic, but sex on the other hand.....

Painkillers destroy hearing

Argyle — Fri, 03 Oct 2003 11:25:58 -0800

Painkillers destroy hearing - Looks like America's fascination with Vicodin, Oxycotin, and other hardcore painkillers has a lasting effect other than addiction. Studies are showing that "rapid hearing loss, even deafness, in some patients who are misusing the drugs". This is serious enough for Vicodin's manufacturer to add a "warning about the potential for hearing loss to the drug's label."

Is Rush Limbaugh's sudden deafness and recent involvement in a painkiller drug investigation simply a coincidence?

medicine for the millions

Pretty_Generic — Sat, 30 Aug 2003 13:47:22 -0800

At the WTO: At last, the USA backs away from the policy of putting intellectual property above innocent lives. Good news for everyone who cares about mankind.

War pills

LouReedsSon — Wed, 22 Jan 2003 01:26:57 -0800

Want war without remorse? Take only as directed.

bittennails — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 09:29:09 -0800

The barbie drug, brown and hard anyone?

kat — Sat, 22 Dec 2001 12:31:22 -0800

Model health law empowers states. "Patients could be forced to take medicines or receive vaccines for contagious diseases that pose a public health threat, such as smallpox, under the model law." (originally published in Boston Globe, but that link is now gone)

lheiskell — Thu, 02 Aug 2001 23:22:21 -0800

Why is everybody so happy?
This Thursday, U.S. regulators approved numerous copycat versions of Prozac. I wonder how long it will be until Bayer makes Flinstones Chewable Prozac for teens.

Qambient — Thu, 31 May 2001 11:47:26 -0800

US drug patients vs. the world in AIDS crisis. Brazil is making generic AIDS medicine based upon existing drugs created (and of course patented) by US drug companies. the catch? they are giving the drugs away FOR FREE. US Drug companies want their money. the UN agreed ,52 in favor and 1 not in favor, for brazil's strategy for dealing with the AIDS crisis. guess who opposed.

aflakete — Thu, 19 Apr 2001 04:41:58 -0800

Drug companies drop AIDS drugs lawsuit against South Africa. Shamed into it, of course. Paid legal costs too. Perhaps a significant precedent?

daveadams — Tue, 27 Mar 2001 12:33:29 -0800

Free Market Failure?
The pharmaceutical companies profits have been rising faster than the S&P Industrials as a whole, mainly due to huge profits from drug patents. Not only are the drug companies milking American consumers, but their stranglehold on IP rights to new drugs prevents much-needed medicines from being affordable in many third-world countries. But, we can't take away patent rights or investors would flee the drug scene and new drugs wouldn't be developed at all. How do we solve this problem? The only institutions with the financial resources to do the same research as drug companies are national governments. And they have the obligation to protect the social welfare. Should we turn over pharmaceutical research and development to government?

gsh — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 13:22:57 -0800

Merck to lower prices of HIV drugs for Africa It's not perfect and it's not much of a decrease, but it's a start and long overdue.